The Eyes Have It
by clagjanet
Summary: Fantasy AU. Our two favourite spies get a chance to see their lives from a new perspective.
1. The Story of the Amulet

The disclaimer: none of these characters belong to me; they belong to Shoot the Moon Enterprises and Warner Bros to whom I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to take them out for a spin and bit of light humour.

Author's Note: maybe I should have listed this as a cross over but I only stole the barest premise from the film to make this very silly AU story so I will leave this as a "regular" SMK tale.

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"My gosh, T.P., this warehouse is like something out of the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark!"

T.P. Aquinas smiled amiably at Amanda's enthusiasm. "It is pretty incredible isn't it? Actually, the movie – although completely inaccurate, of course, in almost every way about the ways of archeology - isn't far wrong about using somewhere like the Smithsonian Archives as a place to lose something permanently. They like to claim that everything is catalogued down to the last item, but in actual fact, it's more like its nickname, the National Attic. Lots of things have ended up stuffed in the back of drawers or got incorrectly catalogued and been lost forever in storage."

Lee cut through T.P.'s discourse. He knew if he let the two of them start rambling together, they could be here all day. "But do you think you'll be able to find us the amulet?"

They had been sent over by Billy to collect the Amulet of Aker, a piece of Egyptian jewellery that had ended up in the Smithsonian collection 60 years before as a gift to the President from the Earl of Carnarvon, one of the men responsible for finding King Tut's tomb. The current president of Egypt was coming to visit the U.S. in a few weeks, and the White House had decided that as a gesture of goodwill, they would return it to the Egyptian government. Lee had questioned why it couldn't simply be taken to the White House by the Museum, but Billy had explained that apparently, the President had developed some form of paranoia about security that meant he had specifically asked for them to deliver the item undercover. It made no sense to Lee, but it wasn't his job to question the Commander in Chief.

"Oh yes, that one will pose no difficulty at all" said T.P. comfortably in response to his question. "Those King Tut pieces were wildly popular as exhibits from the moment that tomb was opened, so they were catalogued with great precision. They already have it waiting for us over at Acquisitions. Now, do you have the transfer paperwork?"

"Of course" said Amanda, reaching into her purse.

T.P. led them through the maze of floor-to-ceiling shelving, pointing out interesting pieces from American and world history as he went. Lee was somewhat amused by Amanda's oohs and ahs but had to admit, it was a fascinating place. He made a mental note to ask T.P. if he could bring them back sometime for a proper tour.

Finally they reached the desk at the back of the sub-basement and exchanged the paperwork for the amulet from a very depressed Smithsonian staffer.

"Don't pay him any attention" said T.P. after Amanda commented on his demeanour. "Collectors never want to let go of any piece of their collections, even when they don't own them. Now, before you wander away, let me tell you about this piece because it really has a fantastic history behind it."

Amanda sneaked a peek at Lee but he had resigned himself the minute he'd seen Amanda's face light up at T.P.'s offer. He managed to successfully put on his best stern agent face. "Ok, but try to keep it to the abbreviated version, will ya? We have to get this over to the White House before we go home tonight." Fortunately Amanda had turned away before the stern face cracked when he'd had to smile at her obvious glee as she leaned in close to T.P. to look as he pulled the amulet out of its box.

"Now this is Aker, that's who this piece is named for. He pointed at the odd shape in the centre. "You see, he's actually made up of two lions sitting back to back with a single body. This one is named _Duaj_ meaning 'yesterday' and the other one is _Sefer_ meaning 'tomorrow' and so Aker was thus often called "He who's looking forward and behind"."

"So he's sort of a two-headed God, like Janus" said Amanda, glancing up at Lee. "We knew someone who had that code name because he was a double agent, well triple agent, I guess." Lee gave her a small smile, remembering that Christmas Eve they'd spent together in the woods.

"Yes and no" answered T.P. "He was considered a guardian god – he protected the king or the other gods. He was actually more like the two of you – protector and fighter together."

"Eyes in every direction to keep watch on the other's tail" laughed Amanda, pleased by T.P.'s analogy.

"Except he doesn't have any tails" said Lee.

"No, but he does have male and female characteristics. He gave birth to the god Khepri in the Underworld and as an Underworld god, he had many magic powers not given to other gods. There are some that say this piece has many of the mystical powers of the Pharaoh's Curse associated with King Tut's tomb, you know."

"Oh come on, T.P., don't tell me you believe in magic curses" scoffed Lee.

"Of course not, my boy, but it is fascinating to study the legends that grow up around pieces like this."

"Well, you'll have to tell them to us another day because we're due at Pennsylvania Avenue in an hour. Amanda, you look after the amulet."

"Ok. In my purse or in my pocket?"

"Pocket" Lee answered. "We already know your purse is not a safe place to store anything valuable." He could have kicked himself the second the words were out of his mouth when he saw the memory of their terrible fight over that stupid microdot pass over her face. He watched her button it carefully into the chest pocket of the vest she was wearing, then held his hand out to take hers and gave it a slight squeeze. "So partner, ever been to the White House before?"

She gave his hand a squeeze back, as much in appreciation for the 'partner' as the implied apology. "Nope, first time for me." They began to walk back towards the exit. "We're not going to meet the President are we? Because if we are, I am hideously under-dressed." He laughed at the reference to their first mission and knew he was forgiven.

He had been aware of the forklifts busily working their way up and down the aisles of shelving, but unfamiliar with the regular noises of a busy warehouse, he didn't realize the danger of the last loud noise until Amanda glanced up above his head and saw the shelving swaying from being bumped by a forklift on the far side.

"Lee! Look out!" she screamed and pushed him out of the way, just as a large box tumbled off the top shelf and landed with a sickening thud on her head, knocking her to the floor.

Everything after that was a blur to Lee. Scrambling to get back up, only to fall to his knees beside his unconscious partner. Hearing T.P. yelling down the warehouse for someone to get medical help, checking Amanda in a panic and the relief at finding a pulse, watching the ambulance crew running towards them down the long warehouse and placing her in a cervical collar before loading her onto a gurney and racing back outside. Once again, he found himself in an ambulance with an unconscious Amanda, praying for her to open her eyes and look at him. He knelt beside her, one hand on her ribcage as if he'd feel better if he could feel the rise and fall of her breath, the other holding her hand which lay so limply in his grasp.

"I'm so sorry" he kept repeating to her. "It should have been me, it should have been me, it should have been me." He never noticed the feeling of warmth under his hand as it rested on the vest pocket over her heart.

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"Lee? Lee? Please be in there. Please wake up."

Lee could hear a man's voice calling him back, apparently from the end of a long tunnel. He fought to wake up, knowing the voice but unable to place it. He knew he was exhausted and even with his eyes closed he could tell from the horribly familiar beeps and muffled sounds that he was in a hospital. As he fought to come awake, the memories began flooding back of arriving with Amanda at the hospital and fighting with the staff to stay with her while she was being treated. He'd won that argument he remembered with some satisfaction, and he'd been allowed to stay in her room overnight as well. At some point, he'd remembered to ask Francine to track down Dotty at her sister Lillian's to let her know about the accident – she and the boys were probably already on their way back from New England.

"Lee? Lee! Wake up! Please wake up!" The man was becoming insistent and Lee was doing his best to answer him but his head was killing him and he had to fight to get his eyes open. When he finally managed it, he found himself not in the chair beside Amanda's bed, but flat on his back, looking up into hazel eyes identical to his own.

"Dad?" he croaked, even as he knew that was impossible.

"Not exactly" said the man with a mixture of relief and panic. "It's me!"


	2. I Hate Hospitals

"It's me who?" he asked stupidly, still trying to clear the pain from his head, before a thought struck him and he struggled to sit up. "Oh my God, Amanda!"

"Yes, that's right" said the familiar stranger, pushing him back onto the pillow.

"No, it's not right. Where is she?" Lee wanted to throttle this guy but he knew he didn't have the strength to fight his way past him. He wondered idly if he'd been drugged or kidnapped by the KGB during the night.

"She's here. I mean she's me. Lee, please lie back down, we don't have much time."

Overcome with pain, Lee let himself be pushed back into the bed and looked up at the man standing beside him. It was like looking at a mirror image of himself, but with something slightly off. "Who the hell are you?" he snarled.

"It's me, it's Amanda. Only I'm you and you're me. Hang on a second." The man dived towards the table at the side of the bed and pulled out something that Lee recognized as Amanda's purse and began rifling through it.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing? That's not yours" he exclaimed, trying to snatch it back from the stranger, but the man was too quick for him and pulled it out of his reach. He finally found whatever he was looking for and held it out to Lee.

"Look. See?"

Lee took the object from his and realized it was a compact mirror. "I don't understand" he said.

"Just look at yourself" urged the man beside the bed.

Lee lifted the mirror and peered in to see Amanda's dark brown eyes looking at him. Puzzled, he looked back at the man standing beside him and then back at the mirror. "I don't understand" he repeated.

"I'm you and you're me. I mean I'm still me and you're still you, but I look like you and you look like me."

"Ah" said Lee, suddenly relieved that he could understand what was going on. "I'm still asleep." He closed his eyes again and waited for the end of the dream, or nightmare or whatever this was. He yelped when his arm was suddenly pinched hard.

"You are not still asleep! This is really happening. Now try to wake up properly and help me figure out what's going on before my mother gets here to take you home."

"Why would your mother take me home?" asked Lee, still feeling like he was lost in this conversation with this obviously insane man.

"Because everyone thinks you're me, including her. Now as far as I can tell, we were both still ourselves at the Smithsonian and then I think there was an accident and obviously I must have got hurt because you have stitches in your head, I mean my head, and I can remember hearing you shouting at people at the hospital and I still don't know why you do that because it's never any help and then when I woke up this morning, I looked like this and you looked like that and I've been waiting for hours for you to wake up to help me figure out what's going on and oh my gosh what if we're stuck like this forever?"

"A-man-da! Stop rambling! It's making my head hurt!" Lee snapped at her, only then realizing that it really _was_ her because no one on earth could have gotten all of that out in a single breath. He closed his eyes to catch his breath and then opened them slowly to look at her properly. "You're me and I'm you" he repeated slowly.

"Yes" she answered.

He looked in the mirror again and then at the hand holding it. Unthinkingly, he lifted the covers and stared down at his body. Thankfully, it was clothed in a hospital gown but it was still definitely Amanda's body.

"Lee! Stop that!" The Lee looking down at him was torn between laughter and embarrassment.

"You sound just like my dad when I was little" he said in a wondering tone.

"I'm not surprised. In the pictures you have, you're the spitting image of him." Amanda – he was still having trouble processing this – took his hand. "Lee, we need to figure out what's going on. What do you remember?"

"Uh, we got the amulet from T.P. and we were walking out and you saw something falling and you pushed me out of the way and it hit you instead. And then we brought you here by ambulance and I fell asleep by the bed and then when I woke up, well, this." He reached up to touch the stitches and winced. "I said it should have been me and now I guess it is."

She look struck by that. "What do you mean, you said it should have been you? I feel like I remember you saying that."

"When we were in the ambulance, it was like Delano's party all over again and all I could think the whole way to the hospital was how this time it should have been me this time. If you hadn't pushed me out of the way, it would have been."

She sat down in the chair beside the bed still holding his hand. "Oh my gosh, Lee. Maybe it's a curse from the amulet. T.P. said there was a legend about it. Maybe when you said it should be you, you sort of wished for us to swap bodies!"

"Don't be ridiculous – there's no such thing as evil curses!"

"Oh? And there's such a thing as swapping bodies with someone?"

Lee stared back at himself. "Uh, good point." It suddenly occurred to him that she was not as confused by all this as he was. "Why are you so calm? This is crazy."

"Well, two reasons really. First, I've been awake for the last five hours getting used to it and second, this isn't the first time I've opened my eyes and found myself looking at someone who looks exactly like me." She – he? – shuddered a bit at the memory of Karen. "At least this time, I was pretty certain it was you in there and not some crazy assassin."

He nodded thoughtfully. "I can see where there's a certain relief in that. But what are we going to do? We can't stay like this!"

"Well if it is a curse, maybe T.P. knows how we can break it. I'll go find him and see what I can find out."

"I'll come with you"

"I don't think so, big fella." She stood up and looked down at him, and grinned suddenly. "Or little fella, I guess. My mother is arriving any time now to take you home and you have to be here. I'll come to the house as soon as I find out anything. In the meantime, you stay quiet and don't say anything that'll get us in trouble."

"Like what?"

"Don't yell at the nurses. And don't flirt with the nurses. I don't know which one would be harder to live down."

He started to laugh. Only Amanda could have made him laugh in the middle of something like this. He reached out to grab her –his?- hand again. "If I have to go through this, I'm glad it's with you" he said with real honesty.

"Yeah, me too."

The door swung open and Francine walked in. "Oh Amanda, you're awake! That's great! See, Lee? I told you she'd be fine. Housewives are so naturally sturdy that a little concussion isn't going to keep them down."

They both opened their mouths to make some sort of retort but catching each other's eye, they both subsided back into silence.

"Lee, Amanda's mother and kids are already downstairs, so we need to get out of here before they see us. Amanda, we told her you were doing some filming at the Smithsonian when an archive box fell on you, ok? Nice that for once we could use the real story to explain this away." Lee nodded at her, not trusting himself to say anything that would keep Francine from getting suspicious.

Francine turned to Amanda/Lee. "We picked up your car from the archive parking lot and it's back at your apartment so I'll give you a ride home. Now let's get out of here – you look like hell from being here all night and I'm going to get you home and make sure you shower the hospital smell off you."

As she began pushing Amanda out of the room, the partners' eyes met. It was hard to tell who was the most horrified at the mental image Francine had just conjured up.

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	3. Say Uncle

Thankfully, Amanda had managed to keep Francine from actually following her into Lee's apartment and making good on her threat. She had shooed Francine back out to her car, making vague agreements to take care of herself and then fell back in the door, feeling some relief at being in a familiar place. She absentmindedly wandered over to feed the fish and walked into the kitchen to see if there was any possibility that Lee had left any food in the fridge. She was surprised to find it was actually stocked with things resembling food and began pulling out sandwich fixings. She was suddenly starving and realized it had been hours since she'd eaten. "I'm living like Lee already, not eating breakfast" she thought to herself. "And Lee probably never ate anything either after we got to the hospital". She made one sandwich and then another as she realized how hungry Lee's body was. "How does he function without breakfast?" she wondered not for the first time. "I don't know how he fuels this."

She had just finished both sandwiches and was flipping through Lee's address book trying to find T.P.'s phone number when there was a knock on the apartment door. Thinking it was Francine coming back for something, she opened the door and found herself face to face with Lee's uncle.

"Colonel!" she gasped, stepping back.

"That's right Skip! Want to explain why the hell you left me sitting at the airport for the last hour when you were supposed to be picking me up? Not that I should be surprised. I thought you'd outgrown the thoughtlessness of your youth, but I see you're just as senseless as you were when you were living under my roof."

Amanda gaped at him, a thousand thoughts racing through her head. Vaguely she remembered Lee telling her that his uncle was coming to stay with him and realized that this was probably why the fridge was stocked with food.

"That was today?" she finally managed to choke out, scrambling to think of what to say to him.

"Of course it was today! For God's sake man, we only talked yesterday morning to confirm what time my flight was! What's the matter with you? You look terrible. Been out hell-raising all night I suppose?"

Amanda was feeling buffeted by the non-stop barrage from the Colonel. She hadn't seen this side of him when they'd first met, or at least not this unfiltered version of it.

"I'm sorry" she finally managed to say. "There was an accident and I've been at the hospital all night."

The Colonel stopped short and looked him over carefully. "Well, you look alright to me."

"I'm fine, it was Amanda that was injured". She thought she was managing to get the names right surprisingly well considering how strange this situation was.

"Amanda's been hurt? What the hell happened to her? Why weren't you looking after her?" The Colonel was really bellowing now and Amanda could do nothing but stand and let it wash over her as he raged at "Lee" over his incompetence at looking after her, how he should have known better than to ever drag her into the Agency life, how stupid he was for endangering her. She had never in her life had anyone yell at her the way Colonel Clayton was doing now and she began finally to understand what Lee must have gone through as a child. Her sudden sympathy for him was probably what enraged her when the Colonel started on how she had children she was responsible for and how selfish Lee was not to think of them when he was dragging "Amanda" into all these dangerous situations.

"ENOUGH!" she found herself yelling back at him, satisfied to see him stupefied by the sudden rage of his nephew. "First off, we weren't even on a mission when it happened, we were just collecting something from the Smithsonian on behalf of the White House and it was a simple warehouse accident that could have happened to anyone! Secondly, I have never gone into a single mission without worrying about the repercussions to Amanda's family if anything went wrong and we discuss that regularly and she's always got the choice to let me partner with someone else for anything too dangerous but she chooses to do this job because she believes in what we're doing and thirdly, no one feels worse about what happened than I do because she is my best friend and if you have anything else to say on the matter, you can just get the HELL OUT OF MY APARTMENT!"

Amanda couldn't believe all of that had come out of her mouth, even though she knew all of it was true. Maybe she had gotten more than just Lee's body, maybe some of his personality was hanging around the edges as well? She almost smiled at the thought that less than an hour ago she'd been telling Lee to keep quiet and keep them out of trouble and now she was in the middle of a shouting match with his only living relative.

Colonel Clayton was still standing there, mouth open, trying to take in everything that had just been thrown at him. Finally he relaxed a little and said "You're right Skip. I'm sorry." Amanda wished Lee could have been there to hear that. "How's Amanda? You look terrible and you weren't even the one injured."

"Well she has stitches in her head and she's still not feeling quite herself." Amanda began to feel the hysterical giggle bubbling up in her at having come up with such an apt description of their situation and fought to contain it. "Her mother's already picked her up from the hospital and taken her home."

"Is she up for visitors? It would be nice to see her again – she's much better than your usual arm candy, Skip. You're looking in all the wrong places with someone like her under your nose. Your father was just the same until he met Jenny. "

Amanda desperately wanted to get out of this uncomfortable conversation but couldn't imagine what Lee would do if the Colonel showed up in Arlington to visit him right now. "Well, she's only just gone home in the last hour or so, but maybe we could go tomorrow when she's had more rest. But right now, I'm sorry but I have to go follow up on the item we were supposed to be transporting yesterday. My name is on the waybill and I'm still technically responsible for making sure it gets safely to the White House." In fact, Amanda knew that Francine had collected the amulet from her vest that morning and delivered it to Pennsylvania Avenue, but she knew that throwing out words like "White House" would keep Lee's uncle from pursuing her motives for leaving too much.

"Well, if it's your responsibility, then you should go do that. Look, I'll stay here and whip us up something for dinner. Assuming that is that you have anything in your fridge that isn't just a science experiment like last time."

Amanda opened her mouth to make a snide answer before realizing it was the same joke she'd made to Lee a million times before. "Actually the fridge is all stocked up for your visit and your favourite Scotch is on the bar." She was pleased she'd remembered Lee mentioning that to her.

"Okay, Skip, you better get going. Once you change that is."

Amanda stared at him in confusion. "Once I change?" Had the Colonel noticed something wrong about her?

"Your clothes. You're obviously still in the same clothes as yesterday and you look like you've slept in them, which I guess you probably did. You can't show up at the White House looking like that – go find something to change into. And you should shave."

Amanda looked down Lee's lanky body and winced. She did indeed look like something the cat had dragged in and as she lifted her hand to her cheek, she knew his uncle was right about the shaving.

"Uh, right. I'll go do that. I don't think I'll have time to shave though since I'm already so late. Good thing the Miami Vice look is still in, hey?"

"What the hell is the Miami Vice look?" she heard the Colonel barking at her as she made her escape into Lee's bedroom and leaned back on the closed door, trying to stifle her giggles.

"Oh Lord, how am I going to do this?" she thought to herself. Finally she decided that she was just going to have to go at it like ripping off a Band-Aid. Collecting socks and underwear from his drawers and a shirt and suit from his closet, she lay everything out on the bed and memorized where it all was. Then squeezing her eyes closed, she took off the clothes she was wearing as quickly as possible and reached for the pile on the bed. She had managed to get most of the way dressed resisting the temptation to look, or even to run her hand over any part of Lee's body when her eyes suddenly flew open and the laughter finally burst forth. It had finally occurred to her to wonder how on earth Lee had managed to get dressed at the hospital. She had no idea if she was laughing because it was funny or because she was horribly embarrassed before deciding it was both. "Well, what's good for the goose is good for the gander" she thought to herself. "Even if we're not sure which one of us is either of those." She went into the bathroom to find a comb and stared at the familiar but wrong face in the mirror, before finally deciding that she could pass the inspection waiting for her outside the bedroom door. She was wrong.

"No tie, Skip?"

"Uh, it's in my pocket. It's too hot to wear right now with this heat wave– I'll wait until I'm closer to the White House to put it on." Amanda knew how to tie a tie because she'd often had to do it for Joe and the boys, but wasn't sure she'd pass Air Force expectations at this point and was too wound up to make the attempt. Besides, she wasn't actually going to the White House, she was on her way to see T.P. She shot out of the apartment, grabbing the keys to the Corvette as she went.

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Summer traffic meant it didn't take her long to get to the Archives building although tourist traffic made finding a parking spot more challenging. When she finally found her way through the corridors and tapped on T.P.s door, she was happy to hear him call out a greeting in response.

"Lee, my boy! I'm so glad to see you! How's Amanda?" T.P. really did seem to be very relieved to see her.

"Uh, she's fine. Just a few stitches in her head and an overnight at the hospital. She's already gone home."

"Well that's marvellous, just marvellous! I mean not that she got injured, of course, but that she's going to be fine. Thank you so much for coming by to let me know."

"T.P., that's not the only reason I came by. I need to talk to you about that amulet we picked up yesterday. You said something about it having a curse on it?"

"Why Lee, I thought you didn't believe in curses?" T.P. chuckled at what he thought was an obvious joke.

"Well, that's the thing, you see. Something kind of odd has happened and I'm hoping maybe you can shed some light on it. Now does this curse take any particular form that you know of?"

T.P. paused and stared at her speculatively before deciding she was serious. "Well, you remember how Aker is made up of two lions facing different directions? So there are two elements to him, forwards and backwards, fighter and protector, father and mother – two sides of the same coin, but the same coin nevertheless. The two lions represent the dichotomy of Aker – some say he was a single god with two souls but others describe him as two beings who share a single soul. So the curse was widely believed to have some effect on a person like causing something like a split personality but of course no one really knows since curses aren't real."

"Oh my gosh." Amanda couldn't help saying it out loud.

T.P. leaned back in his chair and stared at her. She stared back at him hoping he was just thinking about something else to tell her about the curse, something they could use to undo it. "Good Lord" he finally said. "You're not Lee at all, are you?"

"No" admitted Amanda. It was such a relief to say even that out loud.

"You're Amanda." T.P. seemed to be stating it quite calmly.

"Yes"

"Oh my gosh, indeed" said T.P. finally. "Well here's a how-dee-do as they say. I assume Lee is in your body somewhere. That must be driving him crazy."

"That's an understatement! T.P., please tell me there's a way to undo this! Lee and I can't stay like this! We have lives and families who will not understand this. I mean, I don't even understand it and I'm in it!"

"Well, let's see what I can find." T.P. rose and starting running his hands along the books on his shelves, stopping occasionally to pull one out and toss it on his desk until he had a stack of a half-dozen sitting there. Settling back down at his desk, he began to flip through them rapidly, muttering to himself, making notes and occasionally flipping back to re-check something while Amanda paced around the office. She really had picked up Lee's habits along with his body, she thought to herself. Finally T.P. leaned back and blew out a long breath.

"Well obviously, it's not like there's any real research into the curse" he said "but all the academics seem to agree that these things are always reversible."

"Please tell me we don't need the amulet to reverse it because it's already been delivered to the White House!"

"Ah, well it would certainly have been a lot simpler if you had it, but Plan B should work equally well."

"What's Plan B?" asked Amanda hopefully.

"Time. Curses wear off with time."

"How much time? We can't live each other's lives!"

"You're in luck. The legends seem to suggest that the curse of Aker wears off after three dawns. So I assume you woke up like this this morning correct?" He waited for her to nod. "Alrighty then, you should just have to get through tomorrow and then, the morning after that, everything should revert to normal."

"We have to get through all of tonight and all of tomorrow and then we'll be fine? We can do that. I think. Oh my gosh, Lee is stuck at my house with my mother and children and I have his uncle waiting for me back at his apartment and we have to spend the next 36 hours pretending to be each other in front of the people who know us best in the world. This is a nightmare."

"Well if anyone can do it, it should be you two. Obviously this couldn't have happened unless you were close enough to be an embodiment of Aker in some form, as I said earlier. Two sides of the same coin, two beings of a single soul – if you're looking for a silver lining, it could be the confirmation that you and Lee were destined to be together."

Amanda's eyes widened at T.P.'s description. "What?"

T.P. waved a hand reassuringly. "Oh I don't mean romantically necessarily – I just mean that together you are obviously a force of nature. What do you think happened that caused this anyway?"

"When I was injured, Lee told me in the ambulance that it should have been him this time. At least we think that was it."

"And you had the amulet in your vest pocket, correct? Right over your heart? Was Lee touching you when he said that?"

"Probably. He always holds my hand when he's worried about me." Amanda was a bit embarrassed to admit that; she wasn't sure Lee would appreciate it.

"Well, he would have had to have been close to the amulet as well in order for it to work."

Amanda stopped to think about that. Her hand unconsciously went up to rest on her chest where the amulet would have been in her pocket. Lee's hand would have had to be resting there as well for the amulet's magic to have taken effect. She could feel her heart pounding under her hand. Lee's heart, she corrected herself. How many times had she rested her hand on this chest when she was trying to make a point or trying to steady herself after some kind of near-miss? Feeling it under her hand now was already calming her, although she also wanted to cry thinking about how Lee must have been feeling in that ambulance.

"Snap out of it Amanda" she scolded herself internally. "Lee Stetson doesn't cry!" She looked over at T.P. who had been watching the emotions of her internal conversation passing across her face. "Two dawns? We just need to make it through two more dawns?"

He shrugged. "That's what the ancient scripts say, but I can't promise you anything. This is not exactly science, after all."

"Ok. Well, cross your fingers for us. We'll let you know the day after tomorrow how it works out either way."

"I look forward to that, Amanda. And you know, there are some that say this wasn't intended to be a curse but was actually a gift from the gods."

"Really? A gift? Well if I had the receipt, I'd be returning this one right now."

"Yes, a gift. The chance to see things through someone else's eyes for a time and come to a more complete understanding of them." He paused again before going on, "You know, it really is odd seeing a different person looking out through familiar eyes, but it's not as odd as it should be with you. Maybe the ancients were on to something with that twin souls business."

"Thank you T.P." Amanda really didn't know how to respond to that, and worried that she would cry and ruin Lee's reputation, she dashed out of the office and back to the safety of the Corvette.

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	4. Dreams and Nightmares

Lee meanwhile was suffering the attention of a family that really loved Amanda. Dotty had come into the hospital room like a hurricane, boys in tow.

"Amanda! Whatever have you done to yourself now? My poor baby! However do you manage to keep hurting yourself on these IFF jobs? I was so worried when that Miss Desmond called again! I'm starting to dread the sound of that woman's voice the way she's always delivering bad news!"

"Oh she's not so bad" Lee tried to protest. "She's actually one of my best friends there." Oddly enough, he thought that might actually be true. Francine could be a giant thorn in both their sides but he knew she had their back for almost anything.

Dotty had swept on, barely hearing what he'd said. "Well, never mind about her, let's get you up and dressed and get you home where you belong! Oh my goodness, those stitches! At least if they leave a scar, your hair will cover it."

Lee hadn't heard anything after "get you up and dressed".

Eventually, however, he had managed to get Dotty to let him take Amanda's clothes into the bathroom so he could change out of the hospital gown. The underwear and jeans gave him no difficulty since they were easily slipped on under the gown but when he looked down at the next item on the pile and realized it was a bra, he visibly recoiled. "Not gonna happen" he muttered to himself. In an unconscious imitation of Amanda's moves earlier, he carefully laid out her shirt and then whipped off the gown as quickly as he could before trying to pull the shirt on with his eyes closed.

"Oh God, please let her have found T.P. and please let him have a solution for this." He leaned on the bathroom sink and stared at the woman looking back at him. "Ok, Stetson. You can do this. You can be a happy person in the middle of a happy family." He groaned and pushed himself upright. "Let's go get 'em." Grabbing the bra and stuffing it into Amanda's purse, he walked out of the bathroom and into the centre of Amanda's family for the first time.

The good thing about having a head injury was that no one actually expected him to talk much on the drive home. He lay his head on the back of the seat and listened to Philip chattering endlessly about their time at Aunt Lillian's and all the things that they'd gotten up to before the vacation had been cut short by Francine's call. Part of him sensed something was off but he couldn't put his finger on it.

The rest of the evening passed slowly. Amanda called, which delighted Dotty. That was probably the longest conversation "Lee Steadman" had ever had with her since Amanda was not as willing to cut her off in mid-flow as Lee usually was. When Dotty finally handed him the phone, he could hear tension in her voice. "So how was your day?" he asked. "Find any solutions for our editing problem?"

"Well, there's some good news on that front, but it's going to take some time and I can't really get into the details right now."

"You're kidding me. Why can't you tell me now?" He wanted to say something more about how crazy it was driving him, sitting in her family room trying to say nothing, but with Dotty listening intently to his end of the conversation, he was hyper aware of everything he said.

"Well, don't worry." For some reason, Amanda – in that voice that reminded him more and more of his father – sounded a bit snappish. "I'm planning on dropping by tomorrow so my uncle can visit you. Did I tell you he was coming for a visit this weekend? He was really upset to hear about your accident and he's like to see for himself that I haven't caused you permanent damage."

"Oh crap" said Lee before he could stop himself. He looked across at Dotty's raised eyebrows and glanced around to see with some relief that the boys weren't in the room to hear it. "Sorry," he muttered at Dotty. "Bad news on our project."

"Oh for heaven's sake" hissed Amanda into the phone. "The only thing I asked you to do was keep quiet and not get me in trouble."

Lee dropped his voice to as low as he could. "I am so sorry. I completely forgot he was coming today. Oh lord and I was supposed to pick him at the airport. I'm sorry – has he been giving you a hard time?"

"Oh yeah." Amanda got a lot of meaning into those two words. "Look, how about we come by tomorrow around 10? Do you think you'll be up for visitors by then?"

"I'm up for visitors right now actually. I feel fine."

"You always say that and you're always lying." He could hear her smiling down the phone line.

"Ten o'clock will be fine. We'll all be here." He heard her groan and knew she understood what he was saying.

Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Try and think of something that will get her out of the house then."

"I'll try but you know better than most how difficult that can be." With some relief, he heard her laugh. "Tell the Colonel I'm looking forward to seeing him again."

"Will do. Good night."

Lee hung up the phone and looked up to find Dotty eyeing him speculatively. "I really wish you'd bring your boss home someday. You always have that look on your face after you talk to him."

"What look?" Lee asked before he could help himself.

"I'm not sure." Dotty's eyes had narrowed as if she was really studying him. "Sort of like you have a secret but a really good one."

Lee realized he was doing something very close to prying into Amanda's private life. "Oh, come on you know I don't have any good secrets. I just really like my job." That seemed true enough to be safe.

"You know dear, I don't know what it is about you since you banged your head, but for some reason it's like seeing a different person looking out of your eyes. But not really, it's like, I don't know, familiar but different."

Lee squirmed under Dotty's gaze. "I'm sure you're imagining it. You're probably just tired from the drive down from Aunt Lillian's."

"Maybe. But you're looking tired too. You should go up to bed."

"Yeah that seems like a good idea. I'll head up now. Goodnight." He stood up and headed for the stairs but was stopped by Dotty walking over to him from the kitchen and wrapping her arms around him.

"Good night darling. I really am so happy you're alright. I worry about you, you know. You'll always be my little girl, even now when you're taller than me."

Taken off guard at first by the unexpected embrace, Lee forced himself to relax and even hug Dotty back. He was surprised by the rush of emotion it gave him to feel her hug him tightly and found he was tightening his arms around her as well. He suddenly wondered how Amanda managed to leave these people every day knowing she might not come back. His admiration for her commitment to her job increased tenfold.

Dotty pulled back first. "You really must be feeling tired, darling. I don't usually get such a long hug from you."

"Yeah, I'm more tired than I thought, I guess. Good night Mother". He choked up slightly realizing that was the first time he'd called Dotty that since she'd arrived at the hospital.

"Good night darling. I love you"

"Love you too". He headed up the stairs, suddenly truly weary, not just from his aching head but also the exhaustion of trying to be Amanda all day. He passed the boys' bedroom en route to Amanda's. "Good night boys."

"Night Mom!" came the chorused answer. "Love you!"

"Love you too." Lee could not get down the hall and into the bedroom fast enough. He didn't know how he was going to cope much longer with this. The give and take of affection in Amanda's family was exhausting and exhilarating all at the same time. He was completely overwhelmed by the necessity to be secretive enough not to give himself away but be as open and loving as she always was with her family so they didn't worry about her.

He was so busy thinking all of this that he was all the way into her room and standing in the middle of it before he really thought about where he was. He started to laugh, on the verge of hysteria. "Oh my God, I have to sleep here." A second, more horrifying thought struck him. "Amanda King, please please let me find pajamas in here because otherwise I am going to have to explain to your mother why I slept in these clothes."

To his relief, although he didn't find pajamas, he did find some sweatpants and t-shirts that would do and repeated his manoeuvre of sliding her clothes off with his eyes shut and then pulling on the others as quickly as possible. He went in to brush his teeth, staring at Amanda's face staring back at him in the mirror as he did so. "Doesn't get any less weird" he said out loud and saw agreement in the face looking back at him. There was a sketchy moment when he went to use the toilet and lifted the seat out of habit before realizing that wasn't going to work. Getting that aspect over with as quickly and clinically as he could, he walked back into the bedroom and climbed into the bed. He could smell her perfume on the pillow case which was comforting and started to drift off. Just before he fell properly asleep, he found himself laughing as he pictured Amanda going through exactly the same problems back at his apartment.

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Lee suddenly came awake in the darkened room. He was completely disoriented at first before realizing he was still in Amanda's bedroom and her bed. Breathing deeply to try and slow his pounding heart, he wondered what it was that had woken him and then became aware he wasn't alone. Reaching over to flip on the light, he looked over to see Jamie standing in the open doorway, blinking at the sudden light, but also looking as if he was trying very hard not to cry.

"Jamie? What's the matter?" Amanda's youngest son suddenly looked much younger than his ten years.

"Mom? I'm sorry I woke you. It's just that – well, I had a nightmare and I just wanted to check you were ok."

"Yeah I'm ok." Lee squinted at him with sudden understanding. "Are you? What was your nightmare about?"

Jamie shifted his weight from foot to foot, inching slowly into the room. "Well, it was just a normal dream at first really. We were all at the Great Wall of China for some reason, you and me and Philip and Grandma, and then the ground started shaking and the wall started to break apart and then it fell over on top of us and no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find you anywhere." By the end of the description, Jamie's voice had started to quaver and Lee suspected that he was close to tears again.

"Come here, sweetheart." Lee surprised himself with how easily the endearment came out. He patted the bed beside him until Jamie came to sit down. "You know I'm not going anywhere right? Certainly not to China anytime soon." He tried to make a joke of it, but he could see that Jamie was still shaken by his nightmare. "I'm sorry if I worried you today, but it really was just a small accident really and I'll be totally fine in a few days."

Jamie was silent for a few moments before finally blurting out "What would happen to us if something happened to you?"

Lee was struck dumb by the question. No one knew better than him the misery of waking up one morning to find your mother wasn't coming home again and he silently vowed to make sure that never happened to Jamie before he answered. "Well, your grandmother would still be here and your dad of course, but Jamie, nothing is going to happen to me, I promise."

"Would we stay with grandma or would we have to go to Africa to live with Dad?"

Lee was really at a loss now – he had no idea what kind of plans Amanda had for a worst case scenario – so he took a best guess at what he hoped was the truth. "Your dad would come home to look after you, of course."

"Would Grandma still live with us? It would be weird if she didn't. I don't really know Dad all that well."

Lee realized that all these questions had started before the nightmare, this was something Jamie had been worrying about for a while. Then it hit him: this is what had been bothering him during the car ride home. Dotty and Philip had been full of conversation but he didn't think he'd heard Jamie utter a single word from the time they'd arrived at the hospital until he'd said goodnight to him earlier.

"Jamie, your dad loves you and he knows your grandma loves you so I'm sure he'd just move back in here with the three of you, but listen to me, I'm not going anywhere. I am going to be here because you're still going to be my little boy even when you're taller than me." He was repeating what Dotty has said to "Amanda" earlier; being a parent really was a lifetime job, a fact he hadn't really given any thought to before.

"Okaaay" Jamie got up from the bed and started towards the door slowly.

Lee lay back and watched him and suddenly had a flashback of memory of waking up with nightmares when he was about the same age, lying in bed in a cold sweat and having nowhere to go and no one to talk to. Before he knew what he was saying he called out "Jamie? Do you want to crawl in here with me? Just for tonight?" and was rewarded with a look of complete relief on Jamie's face.

"Can I? I know I'm not a little kid anymore."

Lee shifted over to the far side of the bed and flipped up the covers. "You'll always be my little kid. Climb in."

Jamie scrambled into the bed before Lee could change his mind. Lee reached across him to turn off the light and then lay back down. With the familiarity that comes with being a much-loved child, Jamie scooted backwards until he was curled into the side of Lee's body, his head tucked under Lee's chin. Lee stilled momentarily trying to get used to this newest situation before finally dropping one arm over Jamie and relaxing back against his pillow.

"Good night Mom. Love you" yawned Jamie, already halfway back to being asleep.

"Love you too sweetheart" Lee found himself answering. He lay there for a few minutes listening to Jamie's breath evening out as he fell into a deep sleep while he found himself thinking about something Jamie had let slip during his questions. "I don't really know Dad all that well". What kind of man was Amanda's ex-husband? He wondered if he'd ever meet him and see what kind of idiot had let this family out of his life before he too finally drifted off to sleep.

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	5. Coffee Break

Lee couldn't wait for Amanda and his uncle to get there. The weirdness of the day before had not lessened any on the second day in the wrong body. Dotty had been up before him and was rushing busily around the kitchen preparing breakfast. Lee was about to refuse the plate Dotty slid in front of him when he realized that actually he was ravenously hungry. As he ate, he watched Dotty in constant motion, chattering endlessly. As she began shooting questions at him, it dawned on him that she was asking about all the things that Amanda was supposed to be doing that day.

"I'm sorry Mother. My concussion is still making it hard to concentrate. What did you ask me?'

Dotty pushed a calendar in front of him. Lee looked down at it and felt his mouth drop open at all the things listed on it: softball games, birthday parties, charity rummage sales, Junior League meetings, the list went on and on. How did Amanda do all of this and her work as well? He shook his head at amazement as her ability to remain sane. Dotty was still talking when he looked up.

"So the boys will bike over to the birthday party this morning and I'll go cover your shift at the church bake sale. What a good thing you did all those cakes and brownies before you hurt yourself so we still have something to take. And then from there, I'm going to go straight over to my single seniors dance class, but I'll be home by 5, so don't you do anything about dinner, I'll make something when I get home. Today, I want you to just get some rest. Now did you say your friend Mr. Steadman was coming by today? I wish I could be here to meet him but we can't both miss helping at the bake sale. Are you going to get dressed or are you just going to stay in your pajamas all day?" She finally ran out of breath and looked at Lee expectantly.

"Ahhh. Yes?" he finally answered tentatively.

"Oh Amanda, you sound just like your father when you do that. He always used to answer an either/or question with yes or no too. It drove me crazy – I thought only men did that but now you're starting to do it too!"

Lee finished shovelling in the last of the eggs Dotty had made for him and chugged down the last of the coffee in front him, trying not to say anything else that would make Dotty question him. He never even noticed that Dotty had made the coffee with sugar, the way Amanda took it. Taking advantage of a gap in conversation, he'd escaped upstairs and phoned his apartment to let Amanda know that her mother and the boys would indeed be safely out of the house when she arrived with his uncle.

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Amanda pulled the Corvette into Lee's usual spot down the street and watched with some amusement as the front door opened and the boys had spilled out of it, carrying the presents for the birthday party they were headed to while Lee stood in the doorway watching them go. It was so strange to see herself from a distance, looking as if nothing was wrong. Suddenly to her amazement, Jamie had dropped the present beside his bike and run back to throw his arms around Lee's waist and give him a hug and Lee had leaned down to kiss the top of his head, the way she always did when she was saying good-bye to them. Jamie had leaned back to say something to him and Lee had answered with a serious expression before rubbing his head and turning him around and pushing him back towards his bike. He'd watched them pedal away before disappearing back into the house.

"She's a really great mom" said the Colonel from the seat beside her. "Jenny was like that with you." He sounded regretful.

"Well, Philip and Jamie are pretty great kids" said Amanda, trying not to sound emotional about what she'd just seen. A horrible thought struck her. What if T.P. was wrong? What if this didn't wear off and she couldn't go back to her boys? She shuddered at the thought before finally moving to get out of the car.

Lee had obviously been watching for them because the door opened before they were even halfway up the front path. "Hi Colonel! How nice to see you again!" He even managed to sound like he meant it.

"Amanda! I'm glad to see you're feeling better. I've already told Skip he needs to stop getting you in these situations."

"And I've already told you it was an unavoidable accident unrelated to our Agency work" snapped Amanda.

Lee looked at her with raised brows – she had all the signs of having been fighting with his uncle which would be completely unlike her. "He's right, Colonel. I really was just in the wrong place in the wrong time. It could have happened to anyone and I'm on the mend. Now come on in."

As they entered the house, they both stopped just inside the door. Turning back, the Colonel looked back and forth between the two of them for a moment before saying "Amanda, I know your kitchen pretty well from last time, so how about I go make us some coffee while Skip makes sure you're really alright?" He walked off before either of them could say anything.

They stood staring at each other for a beat before rushing to embrace. It was only a few seconds before they both started to laugh although neither of them let go. Amanda looked down at Lee, hazel eyes twinkling. "Ok, this really is weird. You're so tall – how do you even find oxygen to breathe up here?"

"You think that's weird? I don't think I've hugged a man since I was five."

They stood there for a moment just breathing in and out before the same thought occurred to them and they stepped back to stare again. "You _showered_ " they hissed at the same time. There was a pause and then they both started to laugh.

"Eyes closed the whole time, I promise" grinned Lee. "Just went in long enough to do tops and tails before I got dressed. I would have washed your hair but I'm supposed to keep the stitches dry."

"What were you wearing before you got dressed?" wondered Amanda out loud.

"Sweats and a t-shirt of course. I couldn't find any pajamas and I drew the line at wearing a nightgown."

"Not even a sexy nightgown?" Amanda couldn't help herself and started to crack up again.

"Especially sexy nightgowns. Nice shave job by the way." He reached up to turn her head sideways to inspect it.

"Yeah, I couldn't get away with the Miami Vice fashion look for a second day, not with the Inspector General hounding me. Luckily I used to shave Joe whenever we went back country camping and he didn't have a mirror so I had some idea what I was doing."

Lee picked up on the note in her voice when she mentioned his uncle. "Is he giving you a hard time? I'm sorry – the timing of his visit couldn't have been worse."

"I don't think the timing of his visit is the problem, it's the timing of this" Amanda gestured back and forth between them

"Right. So what did T.P. have to say? You said you had good news."

"Well it's good but not great. The general consensus in the ancient texts is that it wears off after three dawns so we just have to get through today and when we wake up tomorrow, it should be over."

"And if it isn't?"

"I have no idea." They both sighed deeply and turned to follow Lee's uncle into the kitchen. He looked up at them and obviously satisfied at whatever he saw, walked into the family room carrying a tray with coffee and a plate of cookies.

"The good thing about moving a lot is that it's force of habit to memorize a kitchen layout pretty quickly, so I think I found everything okay."

"And you managed to do it without getting kidnapped," added Lee before he could stop himself.

The Colonel gave a bark of laughter. "Amanda, that sounds like something Skip would say to me. Please tell me he's not rubbing off on you."

Lee and Amanda exchanged a smile before Lee answered "Oh, I think we've rubbed off on each other pretty evenly at this point."

"I'll grab a couple of those please. I forgot to eat breakfast." Amanda held out a plate towards Lee and waited for him to load it with cookies.

"You didn't forget, Skip. I offered to make it and you turned me down flat. I don't know how you function on just white coffee to start your day."

"Neither do I" Lee really couldn't help himself. "You know it's the most important meal of the day. I ate everything my mother put in front of me this morning," he went on in a virtuous tone.

Amanda looked at him suspiciously. "Really?"

"Really."

"Huh" was all she answered.

The visit went fairly smoothly after that. "Amanda" could appear to be slightly out of character because of the concussion and "Lee" could appear to be making an effort to be polite in front of his uncle. Finally though, Amanda was finding it hard to maintain the façade and got up, offering to make another pot of coffee. Lee watched her walk into the kitchen and efficiently put everything together before she leaned on the counter and stared out the window over the sink with a look of exhaustion. He could barely hide a smile though when she unconsciously reached up and ran a hand through her hair and started rubbing the back of her neck. His uncle turned to look over his shoulder to see what was making Lee smile, and then leaned forward to speak quietly.

"You know, I think you getting injured has really hit him hard. Maybe because it wasn't something he could have stopped this time. He just doesn't seem himself."

"Yeah, this seems to have affected both of us more than we expected" said Lee with complete honesty.

"I'll say. I went off on him when I arrived and he told me you'd been hurt and he came back at me like a man possessed. We've had some humdinger fights but I've never seen him as angry as he was yesterday. But you know, it was odd – he looks exactly like my brother but this time, it was like Jenny was looking back at me out of those eyes."

Lee's mouth had slowly dropped open as his uncle was talking. "He yelled at you? What did you say to him?"

The Colonel looked embarrassed, obviously having second thoughts about having started this particular subject. "I, um, may have suggested that having a mother of two small boys in the field was irresponsible."

Lee felt his own temper rising. "You think I'm an irresponsible mother? No wonder he got angry with you. He knows better than anyone that isn't true."

The Colonel was backpedalling quickly now. "I didn't say _you_ were irresponsible. I just found myself telling him he was selfish to have dragged you into this and he should be considering Philip and Jamie and the next thing I knew he was defending himself and then there was something along the lines of if I didn't think he knew you were his best friend, I should just get the hell out of his apartment."

Lee had been reduced to shocked silence by this time, trying to imagine Amanda letting her temper get the better of her to that extent. The Colonel glanced over his shoulder at the figure in the kitchen and went on. "I should have known better. He really cares about you, you know."

"I knew that," Lee managed to say, "but I'm not sure I realized how much until now."

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	6. About Last Night

It was 4:00 am when Lee woke up on the third day. It was still dark since the sun wasn't due to rise for another 45 minutes. He lay there staring at the ceiling, thinking back over the last few days. Amanda and his uncle had stayed at the house for most of the day before since "Lee" hadn't wanted to leave and his uncle was equally concerned that "Amanda" was home alone with a concussion. Finally though they had had to go before any of her family came home and Lee had been left for another evening alone with Dotty and the boys.

It had actually been pretty enjoyable. It had been Philip's turn to pick the Saturday night movie so of course it had been something with a lot of car chases and action. Lee had made a mental note to never let him near the Corvette. Jamie had still been pretty quiet but seemed to be getting over the fears of the night before. Nonetheless, he had spent the evening cuddled up to Lee on the sofa. He'd found the physical contact comforting and after two days of Amanda's habits popping up, he had not been surprised at all to find himself absent-mindedly stroking Jamie's hair as they watched the movie. He had actually been sad when it had come time to say goodnight to everyone, getting and giving the hugs, listening to the sounds of Amanda's family settling down for the night. It wasn't exactly the Waltons with the two boys squabbling over almost everything, but to someone who had never experienced family life, it was a revelation. He couldn't wait to get back to his own life and he prayed it would really happen after the next dawn, but he also knew he had been given the opportunity to glimpse a tiny slice of domestic heaven.

Sighing deeply, he got up and headed downstairs. When he walked outside, he wasn't surprised to find Amanda already sitting the gazebo, head in her hands.

"Nice place. Come here often?" he quipped as he walked up and sat down beside her.

"Pretty often" she answered in an exhausted tone. "Lee, what is this doesn't work? What if I have to sit across the street watching you raise my kids for the rest of my life?"

"Oh, we'll have to get married and you'll retire to stay home and be Mr. Mom because there's no way the current Scarecrow is going to survive for more than day out in the field with the KGB after him when he can't even hit, let alone shoot anybody." Lee was trying to make her laugh and almost succeeded. She did laugh, but with a slight sob in it.

She managed to answer him though. "Can you imagine if the current Amanda King suddenly became Billy's top operative? I'd come visit you at work just to watch Francine's face."

That set them both off laughing hysterically until they managed to calm themselves, worried that they'd wake up Dotty or the boys. Finally they had sat back, leaning into each other for comfort and waited for dawn. He didn't remember drifting back to sleep as they sat there, but he knew something was different when he jerked awake. Turning his head slowly toward the person he could feel sitting beside him, he found himself looking down into Amanda's brown eyes and he knew the expression of relieved wonder he could see on her face was mirrored on his own.

"Hi beautiful" was the only thing he could think to say.

Amanda burst into tears. "Oh Lee, I have never been so glad to see you in my entire life!"

"Ditto" was all he could manage to get out before she had thrown herself into his arms, sobbing on his chest while he held on tight.

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His first stop on Monday morning was T.P.'s office. The antiquarian had looked up when he poked his head around the door and leaned back to stare at him for a moment through narrowed eyes. Whatever he saw made him nod in satisfaction before saying "Welcome back, Lee."

"Yeah, I, uh, came by to say thanks for the research on the amulet. It was pretty useful."

"So how is it being back in your own body? Did you enjoy your gift from the gods?"

Lee's jaw dropped. Amanda had never told him that T.P. had seen through the curse and recognized her two days before. "You knew? How do you know it's me now? And what do you mean 'gift"? That was a curse through and through."

T.P. shrugged. "If you say so. As for knowing it's you now, it's like I told Amanda, it's the eyes. You know the phrase 'the eyes are the window to the soul'? Well, when she came by last week, it was like a familiar soul looking out, not wrong exactly but not altogether right either. You two really are twin souls I think. That's your own special magic."

Lee rolled that thought around in his mind testing it out before finally asking, "What did you mean when you said it was a gift?"

T.P. grinned at him. "Amanda really didn't tell you anything about our conversation last week, did she?"

"We didn't have a lot of time for conversation alone to be honest."

"Well, the short version is that you were both given the chance to see through someone else's eyes and come to a more complete understanding of them and yourself in the process. I trust you learned something from all of this?"

"More than I could have imagined T.P., more than I ever could have imagined."

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	7. Reality Check

"Amanda?"

They were sitting in the Corvette at a lookout point over the Potomac, watching the to and fro of boats on the river and cars on the bridge while they ate the Marvin's burgers they had picked up for lunch.

"Mmm hmm?"

"You never did say how you managed to get showered that second morning."

He glanced sideways and watched her start to blush while rigidly staring ahead out the windshield.

"Oh, you know, tops and tails, just like you."

"And that wasn't too uncomfortable for you?" It was like he couldn't resist teasing her, even though he wasn't sure how he felt about getting an answer.

"Oh Lee. I was married, you know. And it hasn't been that long since I used to bathe the boys in the shower with me."

"A-man-da! Way to hurt a guy! Did you actually just compare showering as me to washing a small boy?"

He'd wanted to see if he could make her blush more, and he'd succeeded but he was surprised when she pressed her lips together, obviously trying not to laugh. As he watched, she had sneaked a peek towards him before giving up and starting to laugh outright.

"Oh it wasn't so different."

"Seriously?"

She'd finally managed to stop laughing and turned to him with her most demure expression before going on. "Well, it was a very, very, _very _ cold shower!"

"A-MAN-DA!"


End file.
